Moment bandits raid California train during Wild West-style heist

Dramatic video has surfaced capturing boxcar bandits robbing trains in Southern California amid a rash of railroad strikes across the region.

One of the viral clips shows a crew of apparent thieves tossing packages from a stopped train onto the ground below and loading them into getaway vehicles. 

Another shows a person ominously filming while standing aboard a moving train next to several stacks of cargo.

The exact locations of the videos — which were posted on August 21 and Sept. 12 — are not clear. But railroad corridors in Southern California, especially those passing through San Bernardino County, have recently become prime targets. 

Earlier this month, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department arrested two men on the Twentynine Palms Highway near Cholla Avenue in Yucca Valley after an off-duty officer observed a white box truck matching the details of a train heist in Amboy. 

Deputies arrested Eddiel Burgos, 30, and Pastor Pena Lerma, 43, who were booked into the Morongo Basin Jail on charges of commercial burglary and grand theft of cargo valued over $950.

The incident began on Sept. 4 at approximately 9:45 p.m., when BNSF Railway investigators alerted deputies at the Morongo Basin Station to a large-scale burglary in progress.

Investigators reported that an organized crew utilizing 15 to 20 vehicles, including several white box trucks, had breached freight containers near Amboy. 

The thieves made off with approximately $50,000 worth of cargo, consisting primarily of Ariat brand boots and DeWalt construction power tools, according the the authorities.

In a similar robbery last month, gun-slinging bandits opened fire on a San Bernardino County train as it traveled through a desolate mountain pass. 

The group of suspects fired on officers with the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway just before 6:30 p.m. in what appeared to be an effort to rob the train as it made its way through the Cajon Pass between the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains about 20 miles northwest of San Bernardino.

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